Surely You Jest
It's finally over, for the first time in over 3 months I won't have to drag a 1079 page book with me and spend my free time looking up references in the OED. I don't know what to do with myself now; it's cathartic and mind bogglingly irritating at the same time. Now I have to find other things to read, and I've kind of forgotten how ones goes about doing that.
Infinite Jest was a great experience and I'm glad I did, it forced me to research a lot of things I never would have stumbled onto on my own and think about things I never wanted to think about. Jumping so far out of one's comfort zone to read a huge complex novel about drug addicts and tennis players and screwed up families was wild. It was totally worth the effort but at the same time I was expecting something more. An ending that would make my brain explode or make me laugh so hard at what I had just done that I would love DFW for life. Then I read the last sentence and almost cried in frustration. The book doesn't end.
Then I read the first page again and got the joke. You basically have to go back and re-read the book in order for the time line and subtleties to make any sense. It is a book about a form of entertainment so addictive you can't stop consuming it in the form of a book that you can't stop reading. It is literally an infinite jest. It's a loop that you could keep reading forever because it has no real beginning or end and that's the joke.
DFW wins. The bastard. I need a drink.
Infinite Jest was a great experience and I'm glad I did, it forced me to research a lot of things I never would have stumbled onto on my own and think about things I never wanted to think about. Jumping so far out of one's comfort zone to read a huge complex novel about drug addicts and tennis players and screwed up families was wild. It was totally worth the effort but at the same time I was expecting something more. An ending that would make my brain explode or make me laugh so hard at what I had just done that I would love DFW for life. Then I read the last sentence and almost cried in frustration. The book doesn't end.
Then I read the first page again and got the joke. You basically have to go back and re-read the book in order for the time line and subtleties to make any sense. It is a book about a form of entertainment so addictive you can't stop consuming it in the form of a book that you can't stop reading. It is literally an infinite jest. It's a loop that you could keep reading forever because it has no real beginning or end and that's the joke.
DFW wins. The bastard. I need a drink.